The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)—then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” (Mark 7:1-23)
“Fight the good fight!” “Put on the full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10). I think Christians are understanding those words more and more: The Christian life is a battle. We hear warnings about dangers on all sides. “Watch out for what the government might do. Watch out for what schools teach. Watch out for the messages in movies and shows. Watch out!” We need those warnings. It’s so easy for us to get apathetic. Complacent. To get so used to sin and evil that we don’t even notice it. I need those reminders! “Put on the full armor of God.” Life is a struggle against evil.
And Jesus today adds one more warning. Jesus warns you about the most dangerous and sinful influence in your life. About the person you need to watch out for more than anyone else. Do you know who it is? You! Do you realize that? It’s so much nicer to blame everybody else, isn’t it? But if you came to church today to complain about everybody else, you’re in the wrong place. If you find satisfaction in condemning all the bad people out there, Jesus teaches an inconvenient truth. He wants you to squirm in your seat today. The greatest source of evil in your life is you!
Our lesson starts innocently enough: “The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.” Jesus’ disciples were doing something awful. Did you catch what it was? Eating without washing their hands. Moms everywhere gasp. “They did what?” In Jesus’ day, this was really considered that bad. “The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.” Washing was a big deal!
So those Pharisees—appalled!—turned to Jesus and said, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” You’d expect Jesus to agree, right? “Come on guys. Go wash your hands!” But he didn’t. Instead, Jesus got mad. He said, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” Those hand-washing Pharisees? They were hypocrites!
Because washing hands wasn’t the real issue. “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” “Lip service.” Have you heard of that? God hates it. God hates it when people say nice things about him without believing in him in their hearts. He hates it when people try to look good on the outside and hide what’s inside. There’s a word for that: “Hypocrites.” It’s always easy to be hypocrites at church, isn’t it? We make things look nice. We smile. We act kind. We say nice things. But what are you hiding inside? What’s really in your heart? If church is just a place to pretend, than we aren’t a church. God doesn’t want lip service.
Here’s a clear sign that hearts are in the wrong place: “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” It’s so easy to let go of God’s commands and hold tight to our human traditions. All this hand washing stuff: Do you know how many times in the Old Testament God commanded his people to wash their hands? Zero. There are lots of commands in the Bible about lots of things, but there are zero commands about washing your hands. Can you see the problem? Instead of focusing on God’s Word, they raised up their man-made traditions.
That’s a big problem. So Jesus gave another example. God commands, “Honor your father and mother.” You’ve heard that. The 4th commandment: “Honor your father and mother.” But the Pharisees came up with a new thing. They said that if you gave a gift to God at the temple, that gift could take the place of caring for your parents. By giving that offering, you no longer had to do anything to care for your father and mother. Sound good? No! Jesus said, “You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
Why? Why do we always come up with our own traditions? Because our traditions are always easier to keep than God’s commands. Which is easier: To wash your hands or to keep your heart pure? To wash your hands! Which is easier: To give an offering at the temple or to honor your father and mother every day of your life? To give an offering. We make up our own rules to get out from under God’s laws. We make up traditions about what’s on the outside so that we don’t have to think about what’s on the inside. It’s always easier to follow my laws than God’s laws.
And Jesus wants none of it! He called the whole crowd to him. “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” This is really important. Jesus wants everyone to understand it. It’s not what you eat that makes you sinful. It’s what comes out of your heart. It’s not what you wear that makes you sinful. It’s what comes out of your heart. It’s not how dirty your hands are that makes you sinful. It’s what comes out of your heart. So watch out for you!
Jesus drives that home with words we’d rather not hear: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Out of the heart. Our hearts. Evil thoughts. Sexual immorality. Theft. Murder. Adultery. Greed. Malice. Deceit. Lewdness. Envy. Slander. Arrogance. Folly. “All these evils come from inside.” You know our excuses: “They made me do it.” Jesus crushes that argument with these words: “Out of the heart.”
Don’t believe Jesus? Think about this: Nobody has to teach you how to lie. Nobody has to teach you how to lust. Nobody has to teach you how to be greedy or jealous or hate or steal. You know all those things by nature. Because “surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). There have been Christians—like monks—who have tried to get away from the world. But do you know what you still find in monasteries? Sin. You could get away from everybody, but you’d still sin every day, because sin lives in here. Out of the heart.
About a decade ago, a famous Christian pastor was shown to be a hypocrite and a fraud. When an old pastor I knew in Texas heard the news, he just shook his head and said, “The root of every sin lies in every human heart.” I’ve never forgotten that. It’s true. “The root of every sin lies in every human heart.” “I could never commit adultery.” Sure you could! “I could never steal.” Yeah, right. Of course you could! You can wash your hands all day long. You can smile and pretend to be good. But “the root of every sin is found in every human heart.” Including ours.
That’s why King David prayed to God, “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10). We don’t just need a little help in our spiritual lives. We need a heart transplant! We need someone to give us a new heart. That’s exactly what Jesus came to do. Jesus once talked with one of these Pharisees named Nicodemus. He told Nicodemus, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). For us who need new hearts, there is a way to be born again. Through “water and the Spirit.” What’s that? Baptism.
Do you know what the word “baptism” means? “Washing.” Actually, the word “baptism” is used two times right here in our lesson. Where it says “the washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles,” the word used is “baptism.” Where it says, “they do not eat unless they wash,” the word is “baptism.” They were baptizing their cups, pitchers, kettles, and hands over and over again. And Jesus said, “Right idea. Wrong thing. Baptizing your hands doesn’t cleanse you. I’ve come to baptize your hearts. My blood on the cross purifies every sin. My resurrection gives new life.”
That’s how you get clean! Real baptism is “not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God” (1 Peter 3:21). In the miracle of baptism, Jesus washes us. If you’re been baptized, you’re clean. I know you don’t feel that way. You feel dirty. Guilty. And Jesus says, No, “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Your hands might be dirty. Your clothes might be dirty. But “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Here’s what Jesus teaches us today: All along, I was worse than I thought. But all along, I was more loved by God than I thought too. Out of my heart comes sins I try to hide. But out of God’s heart comes undeserved love. Grace. For me and you. When God’s Word leads you to say, “Create in me a pure heart,” Jesus says, “I already have!”
When you believe that, it changes you. Your baptism—Jesus’ salvation—changes you. First, it makes you humble. Humility is a forgotten virtue in our world today. Christians are humble. How can we look down our noses at anybody? How can we throw the blame at everybody else? The greatest problem in my world isn’t them, it’s me! With the true knowledge of our sin, with true repentance, comes humility. Jesus, sinners, does receive. My heart? Sin. God’s heart? Grace.
That grace then leads us to look for other people who are broken too. So many people, so many of us, are hurting. Too often we hid it inside. We put on a good front. But that doesn’t fix our broken hearts. Jesus came to “bind up the brokenhearted” (Isaiah 61:1). You don’t have to pretend you’re better than you really are. Jesus loves you! Look for people who are broken just like you are. Get your hands dirty caring for them. Those Pharisees had clean hands but dirty hearts. In Jesus, you have dirty hands caring for the brokenhearted, but clean hearts by his grace.
Finally, you can live at peace with Jesus every day. You’re washed. You’ve saved by Jesus’ blood. No one can take that away from you. Someone once encouraged me to think about my baptism twice very day. Have you heard this? Every morning when you wake up, think: “I am a baptized child of God. I am a new creation. I want to live for Jesus today!” That’s our motivation for every new day! But then every night, as you think about all your sins that day, remember: “I am a baptized child of God. Jesus has already forgiven me, for everything.” Even though I am worse than I thought, I am more loved than I thought, because out of God’s heart comes grace.
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